Alice Munro Reading Order

29 books (1952–2022)

This collection comprises 27 literary anthologies featuring short stories spanning from 1952 to 2018. The series traces the evolution of short fiction across multiple decades and includes contributions from various authors alongside Alice Munro's work. These anthologies should be read in publication order to appreciate how short story collections and literary tastes developed over this extended period. The complete series offers a comprehensive overview of significant short fiction from the latter half of the twentieth century and early twenty-first century.

Start with Identity And Self Respect, the first of 27 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Identity And Self Respect 1952Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Women and Fiction 1975Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	Among Sisters: Short Stories by Women Writers 1989Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	From Ink Lake 1990Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Faber Book of Contemporary Canadian Short Stories 1990Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Best American Short Stories 1991 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	The Minerva Book of Short Stories 3 1991Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	The Literary Traveller 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction 1999Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	The Best American Short Stories of the Century 2000Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	The Best American Short Stories 2001 2001Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	PEN America Issue 4: Fact/Fiction 2002Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	The Eloquent Short Story: An Anthology of Narrative Styles 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules 2005Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	The Scotiabank Giller Prize 15 Years: An Anthology of Prize-Winning Canadian Fiction. 2008Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	The Best American Mystery Stories 2009 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	Stories to Get You Through the Night 2010Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	Fathers: A Literary Anthology 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	Finding the Words 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	The Best American Short Stories 2012 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
23	The Best American Essays 2013 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
24	The O. Henry Prize Stories 2013 2013Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
25	That Glimpse of Truth 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
26	Woman: An Anthology 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
27	Every Father's Daughter 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
28	Writers: Their Lives and Works 2018Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
29	Stories for Christmas and the Festive Season 2022Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

3 books (1999–2015)

This collection of literary fiction short stories and novellas by Alice Munro spans from 1999 to 2015 across three volumes. The series is complete and should be read in publication order, beginning with Queenie, followed by Away from Her, and concluding with The Office. Each entry stands alone while contributing to Munro's exploration of human relationships and the complexities of ordinary lives.

Start with Queenie and read in order.

#	Title
1	Queenie 1999Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Away from Her 2007Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Office 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

24 books (1968–2016)

Alice Munro's Short Story Collections series spans 24 volumes of literary fiction published between 1968 and 2016, presenting a complete body of work that should be read in publication order beginning with Dance of the Happy Shades. The series showcases Munro's mastery of the short story form across nearly five decades, with each collection exploring the complexities of human relationships and small-town Canadian life through interconnected narratives and recurring themes. Readers can follow the evolution of her distinctive voice and storytelling technique from her debut through her final collections, which include both new stories and selected retrospectives of her most acclaimed work.

Start with Dance of the Happy Shades, the first of 24 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	Dance of the Happy Shades 1968Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
2	Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You 1974Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
3	The Beggar Maid 1977Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
4	Who Do You Think You Are? 1977Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
5	The Moons of Jupiter 1983Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
6	The Progress of Love 1985Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
7	Friend of My Youth 1990Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
8	Open Secrets 1994Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
9	Selected Stories 1996Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
10	The Love of a Good Woman 1998Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
11	Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage 2001Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
12	No Love Lost 2003Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
13	Runaway 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
14	Vintage Munro 2004Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
15	Carried Away 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
16	View From Castle Rock 2006Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
17	My Best Stories 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
18	Too Much Happiness 2009Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
19	New Selected Stories 2011Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
20	Dear Life 2012Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
21	Family Furnishings 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
22	Lying Under the Apple Tree 2014Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
23	A Wilderness Station 2015Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible
24	Julieta 2016Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

1 book (1971–1971)

#	Title
1	Lives of Girls and Women 1971Buy 🇺🇸🎧 Audible

10 books (2011–2021)

The Best American Essays series, edited by Alice Munro, comprises ten annual volumes published between 2011 and 2021. Each book collects outstanding essays from American publications of that year, making them ideal for readers seeking diverse perspectives and literary quality in nonfiction. The series appears to be complete, and entries should be read in publication order to follow the chronological progression of selected essays. These volumes serve as curated snapshots of contemporary American essay writing across the decade.

Start with The Best American Essays 2011, the first of 10 books in the The Best American: Essays series.